In 1420, the great Leonardo da Vinci painted, according to many art historians, his best painting - “The Lady with the Ermine”. However, it was somehow overshadowed by his much more famous painting, which everyone knows - “Mona Lisa” (“Gioconda”).
Leonardo da Vinci. Mona Lisa
Perhaps because the fate of the painting “Lady with an Ermine” was more calm - it was not kidnapped, and therefore all the world's press did not trumpet about it for several months on the center pages.
Leonardo da Vinci. Lady with an ermine. Caecilia (Cecilia) Gallerani.
But still this painting caused a lot of controversy. The main of them - doubt in the authorship of the painting of Leonardo da Vinci, as if at that time there were many other artists who could easily write such a masterpiece. The identity of Caecilia Gallerani, that is, the girl who is depicted in this painting, also raised questions. And this despite the fact that the painting has been thoroughly researched using all the technical means available to date and carefully collected all available information. But there are always new conjectures, often put forward by quite respected art historians, whose opinion is worth listening to. Too many years moves us away from the events that took place at that time, too much water has flowed, and available sources are not always a hundred percent reliable. But we will try to dwell on the official version, which is considered the most reliable.
It is believed that Cecilia - mistress of the Duke of Milan Ludovico Sforze, from whom she had a son Cesare Sforte. Looking at Cecilia it is clear that Ludovico Sforze's taste was excellent. She is really beautiful, without any discount to the era and its ideas about female beauty. This is not Rubensovskie lush beauties, which then perceived as a model of health and the ability to give birth and nurture healthy children.
Peter Paul Rubens. The Toilet of Venus
Leonardo da Vinci emphasized her youth and beauty in the painting. Caecilia is dressed in a simple, almost homely dress, she is wearing a minimum of jewelry - only a string of expensive black pearls. The peculiar, but not devoid of elegance, hairstyle, which became fashionable thanks to the Portuguese Queen Isabella of Aragon, when her hair tightly covers her face, only emphasizes her youth and beauty. At that time, girls and women shaved off the hair on their foreheads, visually making it look bigger. This is the hairstyle depicted by Leonardo da Vinci in his painting Madonna Benoit.
Leonardo da Vinci. Benoit's Madonna.
But what perfectly suits Anatoly Wasserman does not look very appropriate, especially by modern concepts, on the face of a young girl. But the Lady with the Ermine fully complies with all the canons of beauty.
Caecilia is depicted half-turned, which was an innovation for that time - usually painted in profile or in front, without thinking to give the necessary volume of the image. And Leonardo da Vinci was surprisingly accurate in conveying the vivacity of young Caecilia's character, her spontaneity and interest in life - quite natural for a young girl.
Leonardo da Vinci. Lady with an Ermine. Fragment
Her gaze is calm and interested, she has a slight smile on her face, she must have seen something interesting and amusing, so she smiles unobtrusively, observing strict propriety. But she does not look humiliated and submissive at all, her eyes are not downcast, her head is not tilted - Caecilia is ready to observe the required rules, but she knows her price and understands perfectly well that she is a beauty, and her lover is not the last man in the state, who appreciates and loves her.
Leonardo da Vinci. Lady with an Ermine. Fragment
Caecilia holds a small animal resembling a white ermine. It symbolizes purity and purity, it was believed that he would rather die than let his magnificent white fur be stained. There is a version that thus Leonardo da Vinci hinted at the connection between Caecilia and Louis Sforze - he was a member of the French knightly order of Ermine, and the image of this animal was on his family coat of arms.
There is an opinion that da Vinci similarly encrypted the surname Gallerani, because in ancient Greek, the family of martens called “gale”, and the artist himself was a great lover of all sorts of mysteries and secrets.
As for Caecilia, immortalized in this wonderful painting, she could boast neither nobility of origin, nor a rich inheritance. Born in 1473, that is, in the painting, painted in 1490, she was 17 years old. By the standards of the time she was already considered quite a mature bride, and well should already be married and have a child, so that the innocence that symbolizes the ermine, at this age is already strange to say something strange. Caecilia was a very gifted and educated girl - knew Latin, could play various musical instruments and sang well, so it is not surprising that she liked Ludovico Sforze, who served her father.
Ludovico Sforza
A good boss should know about his subordinate's life, especially if he has such a pretty daughter growing up. So Caecilia's fiancé, with whom she was engaged when she was ten years old, was turned away from the gate, and at the age of 16, Caecilia became the mistress of Sforze. She accompanied him everywhere, in his castle, he allocated for her several separate rooms - that is, Caecilia enjoyed all the privileges and opportunities of a noble lady. True, to marry her Sforza could not, because he had to conclude a typical marriage of convenience with a lady of his circle Beatrice d'Este. But Caecilia remained in the castle, and she periodically visited Sforza, who became the father of her child. Of course, Beatrice d'Este such a state of affairs did not suit and she must have constantly rolled her husband scandals, and eventually forced him to break off all relations with Caecilia. But he treated her kindly - married his bankrupt friend Count Bergamini, and to top it off, gave her a luxurious house, so that the couple, and especially the illegitimate son Sforza had a place to live.
Leonardo da Vinci. The Beautiful Ferronniere (Portrait of an Unknown)
Caecilia became an exemplary wife, gave birth to four more children, and, most importantly, opened the first literary salon in Europe, which brought together poets, philosophers and writers who proclaimed her their muse. However, Caecilia herself and wrote well, and invited guests could appreciate her artwork. She lived quite a long life by the standards of the time - 63 years and died in honor, having managed to outlive and her first lover, who gave her a ticket to the high society and Leonardo da Vinci himself.
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